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Mahan's Six Elements Of Sea Power Essay

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Of all the national security challenges that the United States faces, one is clearly dominant. Unquestionably, one of the top national security challenges that face all nations is world commerce: how goods flow from point of origin to destination and who controls these transit arteries. With 80% of world trade carried by sea, equating over 70% of the world trade value handle by ports, it is important to understand where China is in comparison to the United States. Over the past years, the United States has had unchallenged access to the global maritime commons that supported its economic growth. Mahan’s six elements of sea power, economic strength of a country is central to his thinking. These element focuses on a country’s geographical …show more content…

This compares to the United State’s 46.5 million, TEU. Reviewing the top five container ports based on TEU; within China they are, Shanghai 36.5 million, Shenzhen 24.1 million, Ningbo 20.6 million, Qingdao 17.3 million, followed by Guangzhou 17.1 million. In contrast, the top five ports in the United States are, Los Angeles 8.2 million, Long Beach 7.2 million, New York / New Jersey 6.4 million, Savannah 3.7 million and Seattle 3.5 million. Therefore, the imbalance shows that China has set itself up for dominance of this element of Mahan’s sea power.
In referring to Mahan’s elements of extent of territory and number of population, China’s population is the largest in the world with 1.39 billion, compared with the United State’s population of 323 million. In 2016, China’s merchant marine was the third largest in the world controlling 8.87% of the world’s shipping, compared to the United States with the eighth largest controlling only 3.36%. With China’s immense population and the size of their merchant marine fleet, it would be only natural to see that China commands these two elements.
Next, look at the national character for both China and the United States; they both have a full understanding of the markets and the colonial system of the world. During the 2016 calendar year, China’s economy produce $21.27

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